16 years on, Tsunami remembered in Thailand

[buksida]

Tributes were paid Saturday to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the 16th anniversary of the tragedy that killed around 200,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/watch/16 ... p-BB1cfbXr

Patong tsunami memorial service falls to COVID events ban
https://www.thephuketnews.com/patong-ts ... -78455.php

Hard to believe it was that long ago. Very sad for those that couldn't commemorate due to Covid blockades here. RIP

[HHTel]

I remember it every year on Boxing Day. I remember exactly where I was and which bar I was in down Bintabaht. Watching the mid-day news on the BBC when it was stated that up to 60 people may have died!

The hours and days following shocked the world.

[STEVE G]

Yes, it's incredible that it was 16 years ago! I too remember being in Hua Hin and the first I heard of it made it sound like a few people killed in some kind of beach accident. From that point on the death toll went up and up for the next two weeks.

[Hahuahin]

I actually lived in Phuket that time and was just to park the car at Nai Harn Beach when the beach chairs come flying, We got safely away and I am grateful to this day that my spouse had time off from work that day so we started the day a little later than usual when I go for a morning swim alone.
hahuahin

[Bamboo Grove]

From August to early December that year, I had been working in Chiang Mai. My mother, brother and his family were coming to Thailand and said that if I'm in Chiang Mai, they will go to Khao Lak. I returned to Hua Hin in December and they came to Hua Hin, too. Talk about destiny.

That morning, we were playing, what Lomu called the caveman game, on the beach and the news started trickling in. The first one was that there had been a big wave in Phuket, four people were missing but otherwise everything was alright. As the day went by, the news started to change to much worse.

The next day my family returned to Finland and saw in the plane some people wearing nothing but their swimming suits or trunks. He said that had they known the severity of the situation, they would have gone to south to help as both he and his wife are doctors.

[buksida]

It's a day I'll never forget. We were in Ao Nang, Krabi, and had booked a boat to Koh Phi Phi for the morning of the 26th. Fortunately, Christmas hangovers kept us in Krabi - but we got wet nonetheless.

[migrant]

I was in Thailand, this was before I came permanently, and we were scheduled to go to Phuket 2 days after the Tsunami. Obviously it was cancelled. We did ask if they needed people to help with whatever but were told no, just donate money

[hhfarang]

For me that was the beginning of the end for Hua Hin. Before the Tsunami Hua Hin was still a quiet town, little more than a fishing village with a few hundred full time or snowbird foreigners, most from Great Britain or Scandinavia. Because of the devastation of the popular southern tourist destinations more people and businesses both Thai and foreign moved northward to Hua Hin and more tourists discovered Hua Hin with the popular southern beaches closed or considered dangerous. That next year and the 9 years following until I left, Hua Hin went through a huge growth in permanent population and visitors until it was no longer the place where I retired to get out of the rat race.